Obama's Newcomer Appeal Helps Capture Hearts of Internet Donors

By Kristin Jensen and Jonathan D. Salant

July 5 (Bloomberg) -- It takes a political outsider's resume and a technologically savvy organization for a presidential candidate to claim the mantle of darling of the Internet. This year, Barack Obama is picking up where Howard Dean and John McCain left off.

Illinois's Democratic senator raised $10.3 million online in the last three months alone, adding to $6.9 million in the first quarter. The support of so-called netroots activists has helped him raise the most money and compile the largest overall list of donors in the field, including 110,000 who gave on the Internet.

Obama, 45, is benefiting from his appeal to a new generation of voters, his early opposition to the Iraq war and a smart use of new media, analysts say. They also point to a maverick feel to his campaign, of the sort that Republican Senator McCain had during the 2000 campaign and has now lost.

``Many of those who are most active on the net tend to be individuals who are not so Beltway-oriented, and therefore they're looking to support voices that they feel reflect their views,'' said Anthony Corrado, a professor and campaign-finance specialist at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

McCain, of Arizona, was the first to tap the Internet in a significant way. After winning the Feb. 1, 2000, New Hampshire primary, he raised $3.5 million online in three weeks, campaign officials said at the time. In 2003, former Vermont Governor Dean, now the Democrats' national chairman, used the Internet to bring in more than half the $41 million he raised that year.

Another Run

McCain, 70, is back for another run at the White House. This time around, he is coping with an unpopular president in his party, a controversial war that he supported and eight years of being well-known on the national stage.

The 2008 version of McCain is nowhere near as popular with the netroots activists. McCain has raised about $2.8 million online this year, less than a fifth of Obama's $17.2 million.

McCain is ``not a new face,'' said Eddie Mahe, former deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee. ``He dramatically changed his posturing from eight years ago, when he was successful as the maverick, to become the establishment candidate. People who support mavericks do not support establishment candidates.''

McCain's overall fundraising dropped to $11.2 million in the last three months from $13.1 million in the first quarter. Obama raised his total to $32.5 million from $25.8 million.

Democratic Lead

In all, the eight Democratic presidential candidates are set to continue their fundraising lead over the Republican contenders, taking in over $80 million in the second quarter compared with about $50 million for the ten Republican hopefuls. In the first quarter, the Democratic candidates raised close to $79 million compared with about $53 million for the Republicans. Obama led the entire field in the second quarter.

``We've been waiting for Obama Act II: evidence that the initial rush of excitement has legs,'' said Rogan Kersh, a public service professor at New York University. ``This pretty clearly confirms that it does.''

Obama has sustained his momentum in part through a careful cultivation of the online medium. Last month, a campaign e-mail offered recipients who donated in any amount a chance to win a seat at a dinner for five with the candidate. Responses from thousands of people pushed Obama's total donor list for the year to 258,000, compared with about 72,000 for McCain.

`The Persona'

``What Obama has set up now is a huge base of smaller donors who can be solicited repeatedly between now and the end of the year,'' said Fred Wertheimer, a campaign-finance expert and president of the Washington watchdog group Democracy 21. ``It's a combination of the message and the persona.''

Obama's popularity with Internet users is driven in part by his criticism of the war in Iraq and its handling by President George W. Bush. While other candidates are also opposed to the war, analysts say Obama's message is enhanced by his youth and optimism, attributes that appeal to the netroots.

Online activists are looking for candidates ``who they see as new faces,'' Corrado says.

Most candidates, including New York Senator Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, haven't yet provided details on their Internet fundraising. Their full reports for the second quarter are due to the Federal Election Commission by July 15.

Clinton, 59, raised at least $4.2 million from the Internet in the first quarter; the campaign hasn't disclosed the second-quarter figure. Even if Clinton matched her first- quarter performance in the last three months, she would have raised only about half of Obama's online total.

Edwards

His next closest competitor, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, has raised close to $7 million on the Internet in the first six months of 2007. During the last quarter, he hired Joe Trippi, the architect of Dean's 2004 online effort, as a senior adviser; Trippi didn't respond to requests for comment.

Obama has raised more online than some of his rivals, such as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Biden, have raised from all sources combined.

While neither McCain nor Dean, Obama's predecessors as online favorites, won their parties' nominations, rapid changes in technology make comparisons between elections difficult, Corrado said. The rise of social-networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook gives Obama access to more organizing and mobilization tools than McCain and Dean had.

``The campaign is now very conscious of starting to translate that support into votes,'' Corrado said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net ; Jonathan Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 5, 2007 00:03 EDT

		Email this article Printer friendly format